Examining Relations Between Public Participation and Public Expenditure: Opinions from English and French Users on Environmental Issues in the English Channel

Abstract

Governments need to decide how to allocate their public expenditure, which is commonly misconstrued as simply targeting social issues. Most scientific literature highlights that the role of public spending is to enhance social welfare and fight poverty and inequality. Nonetheless, public expenditure also includes spending on environmental issues. This paper analyses relations between public participation, support for public expenditure, and pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) intentions in the English Channel region. An online public survey was developed to investigate public use of the English and French sides and the public’s willingness to change their behaviour to better protect the Channel region. The survey was undertaken in the summer of 2014 and was answered by 2000 respondents. The Channel region public is willing to participate more in behaviour that involves direct changes or switches between buying/purchasing choices. In contrast, there is less willingness to engage in pro-environmental behaviour intentions that involve more active engagement activities. French respondents were slightly less inclined to change their consumer behaviour intentions, while women and older people were slightly more likely to do so. This research shows that pro-environmental behaviour could positively affect support for proposed public expenditure on environmental issues.